PATSY R. BRUMFIELD: Immortality in a family’s holiday dishes

Where did the time go? Where is the oxygen? The ole clock on the wall says it’s only two weeks to Thanksgiving and I haven’t even set the table yet!

Too much stuff is going on, but I’ve managed to complete my menu for the big holiday. And this past weekend, I whipped up two pans of “Sweet Potato Queen Casserole” for family consumption.

Of course, there are people near and dear who will not dare poke a fork into sweet potatoes, but that’s their loss and everybody else’s gain.

I bought my taters a couple of weeks ago and put them into the fridge, as recommended, so they would get sugarier. I do not know why this happens, but apparently it does.

Cooking for my loved ones is always crazy but worth all the harried moments.

One really enjoyable part of this year’s cooking has been my much appreciated inclusion on my friend Carlie Kollath Wells’ website for newcomers to New Orleans, where she resides with her hubby, Caleb.

Carlie’s newinnola.com site affords me space for a cooking blog named “Southfacin’ Cook.” With the latest addition, we’ve published 40 recipes for folks to try everything from fried chicken and gumbo to garlic-cheese grits and fried green tomatoes.

Chiefly, the blog was aimed at people who don’t know how to cook, and especially for new residents to the Crescent City, where absolutely everybody is expected to know how to make red beans and rice without thinking twice.

That’s where all this started actually, with red beans and rice.

Now, we’ve really put out all kinds of recipes and step-by-step photos to show would-be cooks how it’s done.

In some instances, the recipes are my own, developed over years and years of a little bit of this and a little bit of that.